Amersfoort city council has been ordered to pay a convicted paedophile €4,000 compensation after going public with his address last year.

The court in Utrecht ruled there were insufficient reasons to justify briefing other people who lived in the same complex or the owners of the daycare centre on the ground floor. The council also called a public meeting and set up a phone helpline for worried locals.

However, there were no indications of social unrest or that Sytze van der V, who is 67, was going to re-offend, the court said.

‘Given these circumstances, the council could have been expected to be less forthcoming in its provision of information,’ the court said.

Van der V was jailed for sexually abusing under-age boys. He was released from jail in 2013 and banned from returning to Eindhoven where the offences happened.

When the council went public with his address, locals staged angry demonstrations outside the property and urged the mayor to move him.